The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 505

Chapter 504
Two Gold Tier Slots!
Eivass felt a little helpless.
Although the Lord of Scales and Feathers had given him a Gold Tier Slot, he had no choice. This was because [Dissolving Soul] was an essential Core Slot for an Illuminator, and since it had appeared, he had to choose it.
The three slots this time were all quite valuable.
Even the Purple Tier Slot [Heart of Burning Flame] was just not suitable for Eivass—”Spell Enhancement” was equivalent to increasing priority by one level, which was the same as increasing penetration by one level. All it required was “consuming fire attribute mana,” and it didn’t even specify that the spells had to be fire attribute.
For builds like a Blood Mage that focused on burning blood to recover health, forming a self-sustaining cycle, this slot could be a simple and practical damage-boosting slot after negating the downside of needing to burn blood to activate.
If Eivass were to advance to the Beast Lord, gain the ability to merge with a Beast of Sin, and use the Butterfly as his primary combat force, this slot would be useful.
The various spell abilities of the Butterfly would definitely consume fire attribute mana. This would be equivalent to directly gaining one level of penetration.
And [War Chant]…
What kind of ridiculous slot was this!
It was powerful, no doubt. When fighting weaker opponents, it could stack up to seven buffs, and when fully stacked, it could even restore health steadily. It was equivalent to having a personal support team following behind, adding buffs.
It was strong at first glance. It just wasn’t usable.
…Because Eivass didn’t engage in close combat at all.
Even after he became a Beast Lord and could merge, his two current Great Beasts leaned towards backline spellcasting, and he hadn’t even captured a close-combat physical Great Beast yet.
Besides, Eivass himself was a Priest!
He was even an Illuminator, his main role being buffing. The only issue was that he couldn’t buff himself… but he could buff his Great Beasts first, then merge with himself to receive the buffs. There was no need to kill to activate it.
It would take at least seven kills to fully stack—”kills” referred to intelligent life, meaning he’d have to kill at least a Troll. Even beasts didn’t count. This warm-up time was too long and inconvenient.
Eivass felt a bit surprised.
Because, theoretically, the slots granted by the Pillar God’s Grace should be the Pillar God’s own power. Similar to how the slots Twin bestowed upon Eivass had obvious “mirror” elements.
If the Lord of Scales and Feathers granted a slot, it should be power adapted to the Path.
However, no matter how he looked at it, this was the Path of Authority… or rather, a slot related to “Power.”
In a daze, Eivass thought of the Breaker of Cities that had descended into Lancelot’s body.
—Was it blown to pieces by Leah?
That would align with the mushroom cloud Eivass hadn’t seen before…
“…Speaking of which.”
Eivass suddenly recalled a sentence.
“—Let me tell you, I’m here to kill you, Eivass.”
At that time, the Breaker of Cities had said that.
Because Eivass had descended into Eivass’s body, Eivass sometimes wasn’t sure which Eivass the other person was calling.
But looking back now, that sentence seemed a bit strange.
Eivass was targeted by the Bear Heavenly Envoy because he had killed the last Giant Royal Family—the Giant Royal Family had the Bear Heavenly Envoy’s bloodline, and that prince might have been his Candidate Disciple. It wasn’t strange for Him to seek revenge on Eivass.
However, the Eivass of this worldline had not come into contact with Noble Red at all. The Prince of Giants had lived well until the end in the game worldline, and he was likely still alive here. Therefore, the Bear Heavenly Envoy had no reason to deal with the Eivass of this worldline.
—So, that guy was looking for “Eivass” as an Ascender.
In other words, the Breaker of Cities was an “intruder”!
Those Phantom Demons who bypassed the Host’s protection and directly interfered with the Ascension Ritual from the Dream Realm!
It was said that high-level Ascension Rituals could attract intruders because their souls were delicious enough. A group of powerful and pure souls, undefended, gathered here for ascension… If the guarding Host was weak, some would inevitably target them.
However, Akropolis should be stronger than Enyo, the “Breaker of Cities,” and would not let her barge in easily.
So…
“Was it a trap?”
Eivass realized.
After all, the Lord of Scales and Feathers controlled the domain of prophecy, so it was normal for them to foresee everything. This Ascension Ritual itself had been tampered with, allowing the ritual to function normally… which was why Lancelot of the Shadow Realm was drawn in, and why the Breaker of Cities was drawn in.
If that was the case, then the Lancelot summoned by Eivass himself might not have been a temporarily generated “simulated Lancelot.” Eivass had been curious before about how a Heavenly Envoy could forcibly descend through the Shadow of Avalon ritual within an Ascension Ritual… Now it seemed that it was impossible.
It was likely that the entity that suddenly contacted him and wanted to possess him was also a genuine Ring Heavenly Envoy…
Therefore, this was a ritual specifically customized for Eivass!
Because only in this ritual would Eivass logically use the Shadow of Avalon ritual, and since this ritual was “real,” the Ring Heavenly Envoy could also contact him. Thinking about it now, Eivass’s sudden desire to perform this ritual was probably due to the influence of the Ring Heavenly Envoy—only when Eivass came into contact with the Ouroboros Ring ritual could the Ring Heavenly Envoy possess him.
To this day, there were still faint crystal snake scales on Eivass’s forearm, which served as proof.
And the Lord of Scales and Feathers had even calculated the actions of the Ring Heavenly Envoy!
“…Isn’t this using me as bait?!”
Eivass was somewhat displeased.
Well, it was acceptable.
At least that guy died in this ritual, and it even gave Eivass some benefits.
The Breaker of Cities was ultimately Eivass’s pursuer. As a powerful Apostle of the Bear Heavenly Envoy, her premature death was a good thing. If she had descended directly from the Material Realm to hunt Eivass, it would have been troublesome.
Thinking of this, Eivass felt a little shocked and a little regretful.
—What would have happened if he hadn’t retreated then, but had directly activated the complete Shadow of Avalon ritual?
Pulling down the Bear Heavenly Envoy himself—
But soon, Eivass quickly dismissed his bold idea.
If the Bear Heavenly Envoy had truly descended, his soul would not have been able to remain in that body for so long; it would likely have been squeezed to death.
Eivass chose [Dissolving Soul] without hesitation.
[Dissolving Soul (Gold): Your soul transforms into a nobler form; blessings of “medium” scale or below will no longer require rituals; you will be immune to sleep, charm, curses, and instant death spells, and your soul can be actively drawn out as a consumable.]
The resistances provided by this slot were not very useful… As Eivass mentioned before, resistances were less useful than penetration. However, immunity provided slightly better resistance than nullification, so it wasn’t entirely useless.
Just as the Fourth Tier [Flame Nullification Barrier] was completely penetrated by the Fourth Tier divine Butterfly, which possessed divine nature… it was nullified, but not completely nullified.
The principles of different “immunities” were different.
Skeletons were immune to sleep because they genuinely couldn’t sleep; such a possibility didn’t exist. Such immunity did not exist as a slot.
But the immunity provided by a slot could naturally be penetrated by other slots—after all, the powers were of the same origin, all from the power of the River of the Dream Realm.
Flame nullification could be penetrated by flames and directly pierced by divine nature, while penetrating flame immunity was a bit more troublesome. It required slots that launched indirect attacks, such as “converting flame damage to soul damage,” “adding true damage to flame damage,” or “reducing flame resistance upon hit,” or a Gold Tier slot for “full flame damage.”
The immunity provided by [Dissolving Soul] worked by pre-dispelling.
Priests could dispel negative statuses one level higher than themselves, and Dissolving Soul was equivalent to transforming one’s soul into a golden mist. It could directly dispel negative statuses upon contact with the soul, and it was enhanced by one level.
In other words, its immunity was equivalent to Eivass constantly casting a dispelling spell one level higher than himself. Any negative status affecting the soul had to pass through this dispelling wall first. It could be considered as increasing resistance by two levels, and higher-tier negative statuses would also have their effects weakened due to being dispelled.
But the main reason Eivass chose this slot was because of its first attribute.
[—Your soul transforms into a nobler form; blessings of “medium” scale or below will no longer require rituals.]
“Blessings” referred to active buffs.
The characteristic of the Illuminator profession allowed him to cast “small” scale blessings instantly without materials, which was why he could add various buffs to teammates in combat. And “Dissolving Soul” was an exclusive slot for Illuminators, which increased the buff casting level by one, making it “medium” scale.
Medium scale rituals could provide much stronger buffs than small scale rituals.
Small scale ritual blessings, such as “Lucky Blessing,” which was the buff Eivass cast on them before fighting the Punisher Demon; and “Haste Blessing,” “Courage Blessing,” and so on. Their effects were relatively weak… they were equivalent to buffs that could be cast instantly with just holy water or holy salt and a few incantations.
Medium scale rituals included buffs like “Valiant Spirit,” “Breaking Adversity,” and “Stout Body”—the kind of effects that the Golden Tier slot for spoils could provide.
For example, “Stout Body” provided a 20% “Stoutness” effect; “Breaking Adversity” provided 20% “Adversity.”
Stoutness meant that the higher the life, the greater the increase in attack and defense, with the effect reaching 20% at full health; Adversity was the opposite, meaning the lower the life, the greater the increase in attack and attack speed, reaching 20% at 1% life. And they were independent multipliers from regular bonuses, meaning they wouldn’t be diluted by regular buffs, only added to other similar “Stoutness” and “Adversity” effects and diluted, while being calculated multiplicatively with other types of damage bonuses.
This was a real increase!
As for “drawing soul out of the body”…
This was related to another characteristic of an “Illuminator.”
The Illuminator’s special soul could transform into a “Soul Stone.” Therefore, the statues left behind by deceased Illuminators could continuously bestow blessings upon those around them. The initial quest to discover this profession was to find “strange saint statues” from the Church.
And [Dissolving Soul] was like changing this lump sum payment into installments, transforming the solid golden gemstone into golden mist. It allowed one to share part of their soul with others, and the damaged soul could slowly recover due to the change in form.
In the game, its effect was to be used on a teammate, creating an “Illuminating Spirit Potion” in their backpack. Each Illuminator could only create one “Illuminating Spirit Potion” at a time, and it could only be used once within a dungeon. It was equivalent to binding one teammate per dungeon.
Its effect was to instantly remove all soul control, restore half of the maximum HP, and grant a massive HP recovery over three seconds and a full attribute increase for thirty seconds… The subsequent HP recovery could also return about half of the HP.
It was basically like getting an extra life.
However, in games where players could use the store to draw for bonus items like instant recovery potions and debuff removal potions, this ability was mainly used to give the core output an ultimate burst of damage… But in this world, where the big purple bottle “Elixir of All Medicines” and the big red bottle “Essence of Life” couldn’t be bought, this item was genuinely useful for saving lives.
…Before going to the Church, I’ll leave a bottle of my soul for Isabel.
Eivass thought.
She gave him a necklace that could save his life, and he could give her a bottle of his soul in return.
There was no more suitable gift than this.
(End of Chapter)